India jumped 5 ranks to be ranked the 58th most competitive economy on the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index of 2018. The recent jump by India in the WEF index follows similar progress in the United Nations’ E-Government index and World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index. The WEF was topped by the US;

India jumped 5 ranks to be ranked the 58th most competitive economy on the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index of 2018. The recent jump by India in the WEF index follows similar progress in the United Nations’ E-Government index and World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index.

The WEF was topped by the US; however, India had the largest gain among all the G20 economies according to sources. On the list of 140 economies, the US is followed by Singapore and Germany at the second and the third positions respectively.

India, which is the 6th largest economy in the world made this massive jump. This was due to the advancements in high level research and innovation. “India is a remarkable example of a country. They have been able to accelerate on the pathway to innovation (where it now ranks 31st, with a score of 53.8), due, particularly, to the quality of its research institutions,” the WEF said in the report.

The WEF also said that India is the main driving force for South Asia. However, it also called out the hampering of entrepreneurship and business dynamism due to administrative hurdles. Among the BRICS economies, India’s neighbour China topped the list at 28th place with a score of 72.6. This was ahead of the Russian Federation (65.6, 43rd), India (62.0, 58th), South Africa (60.8, 67th), and Brazil (59.5, 72nd).

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India still faces domestic problems like widening current account deficit and bad loans. Moreover, there is a lot of scope of improvement. These are in areas like labor and product market, as well as skill, particularly in the pupil-teacher ratio. The WEF also asked India to make the best use of its younger population. This comes after reports suggest that India will be the youngest country by 2020 with an average age of 29. “More investments will be necessary to spur innovation beyond hubs of excellence and diffuse economic growth more broadly. This includes continuing to widen the adoption of ICT technologies and improving the quality and conditions of human capital across the country, taking advantage of an extremely young population,” the report said.

It is a proud moment for India. We had previously been successful in jumping 22 ranks in 4 years on the E-Government Index. Moreover, we also jumped a staggering 30 ranks to be placed in the Top 100 nations on the Ease of Doing Business Index.